Jesus the storyteller and generous giver A sermon preached at Stoke Talmage on 8/2/26 using BCP Lectionary

 8^th February Stoke Talmage

 

In a society where few could read storytelling was a vital skill and oral traditions have been handed down virtually unchanged through many generations; perhaps you have stories in your family about grandparents or great grandparents that have come down through the generations.  

 

A good storyteller invites you to use your imagination to enter a world you didn’t know existed.  One thing we can know with absolute certainty is that Jesus was a great storyteller, when teaching he spends far more time telling stories (parables) than hammering home his message.  Parables are little stories and that is why they are such a powerful form of communication.  I sometimes find that it helps to look at them a little like cartoons or satire, there is a moment when things just change our perception and allow us to do the work and perhaps see things differently.  Here the Sower just throws precious seed with complete abandonment.  No farmer would ever do that; God just might with the seeds of his kingdom.

 

This afternoon’s parable from Luke is a pithy story.  To a society that existed on farming Jesus uses an agricultural image to make a point about the kingdom of God.  We have the story of the seeds in the ground.  The seeds grow on their own.  The point being that once the seed is sown God works on it without any human agent, although farmers and gardeners may beg to differ.  

 

Seed was a valuable commodity and in all honesty the farmer would not have sown which such generous abandon, the point though is that God is generous in providing the seed which falls on different kinds of ground. The story in our reading this morning is, on the surface, very easy to understand.  

 

A Sower went out to sow his seed

This seed fell onto different types of ground:

The path

Rocky ground

Thorny ground

Good fertile soil

 

The seed prospered depending on the different soil it fell upon

People walked on it or birds ate it on the path

Initial upward growth but with no moisture the plants quickly withered on the rocky ground. Some growth occurred but due to the competition of the weeds, life for these seedlings was soon choked off in the thorny ground.  Good growth, maturity and fruit was the end result of seed falling on good soil.

 

 

It is therefore hard to hear the story without wondering whether we are good enough soil, for the seed.  The seed we see is God’s word sown into our own hearts, are we good enough to let it grow?

 

That would be a simple and straightforward interpretation of the parable, but it is also in danger of being a little self-centred.  I think the parable also teaches us something about the importance of trust.  Perhaps I should stop fretting about whether I am good enough to receive the seed of God’s love, and trust and give thanks to God the Sower that he does trust us with his seed

 

One of the most optimistic that humans do is plant trees, there are some glorious examples in our villages! Whoever planted them knew they would never see them grow to their full glory.  But tree planting shows we trust in the future and recognise the need for persistence and patience. We are called to have faith and patience and believe that there will be a harvest, our Christian witness may not have immediate results, but we must persist in sewing the seed and doing what little we can to prepare the soil.

 

 

God’s kingdom will come, and when it comes it will far exceed our expectations, but my limited gardening expertise leads me to know that with much planting there is sometimes disappointment and loss.  It may also surprise us.  Sometimes things pop up where they weren’t planted.  

 

Here I am paraphrasing a blogger Michael Marsh speaking about this very passage.  He points out that; this parable uses agricultural imagery, but it isn’t about farming or gardening. It’s about us, you and me. It’s about our lives, marriages, parenting, and friendships. It’s about our work and our faith.  It’s about those of us who are struggling, those of us thriving and those of us whose fragile faith is hanging on by a thread. and holding on by a thread. It is about a generous giver who just tosses his seeds and trusts us to be the soil.

 

It’s about living with meaning and purpose. It’s about healing, wholeness, and well-being for others as well as ourselves. It’s about hope and our future. It’s about the coming of God’s kingdom, the one we pray for every Sunday.